By Brad Hutchings (@BradHutchings_)

Photo ROMEL LIVE PIXEL

Moreland Zebras have maintained their status at top of the NPL West 1 ladder by defeating second-placed St Albans Saints 1-0 on Sunday afternoon.

The Zebras got their win thanks to a Baggio Yousseff first-half stunner to sink the Saints at a windy Churchill Reserve. 

Moreland not only managed to control St Albans, but also the blowing wind that stuck around for the entire 90 minutes.

It was the Zebras who came out swinging in the opening minutes of the encounter as they managed to camp St Albans deep in their own half and starve them of possession for large periods of time.

Despite owning the ball, Moreland couldn’t manage a meaningful shot on goal for all their possession.

Momentum then took a swift shift to the home side who then enjoyed their own spell of dominance.

It took up until the 26^th minute for either side to send a meaningful shot towards the opposition goal with Ryan McGuffie forcing Zebras keeper Nikola Kostadinovski to tip the ball over the bar from his shot from distance

St Albans had their brightest period of the half shortly after back-to-back corners, but St Albans couldn’t strike.

Very much against the run of play Moreland blew the contest wide open in the 36^th minute as Yousseff’s curler from the corner of the box had Stuart Webster spent to give the visitors a spectacular opener.

St Albans pushed for an equaliser in the dying minutes of the half to no avail.

The wind continued to wreak havoc on the encounter with the conditions stifling any real attacking threat in the second half.

The home side’s best chance of the half came from a corner in the 56^th minute when McGuffie found space in the box only to have his shot once again well saved by Kostadinoski.

Moreland managed to regroup after that scare to shut out the Saints for the remainder of the afternoon.

St Albans next threat on goal didn’t come until the dying stages of the match as they squandered two chances right in front of goal, both shots falling straight to Kostadinovski. The win sees Moreland continue to sit at the pointy end of the standings.

 

Match details:

St Albans Saints 0 defeated by Moreland Zebras 1(Yousseff 36') at Churchill Reserve. [HT:0-1] 

St Albans Saints: Stuart Webster (GK), Ryan McGuffie, Trent Waterson, Ross Harvey, Barry Devlin, Tomislav Trbuhovic, Nick Scerri, Nick Sarbin, Konrad Dobraszkiewicz, Ben Shaper, Daniel Sweeney

Unused Subs: Yew Otuo-Acheampong, Todros Yabio, Anthony Boras, Ante Kozul, John Scollo

Yellow Cards: Trbuhovic 16’, Sweeny 61’

 

Moreland Zebras: Nikola Kostadinovski, Simon Symeoy, Steve Martin, Daniel Petrov, Adam Centofanti (Johnny Crivelli 75’), Joshua McMonagle-Ihasz, Danny Charalambous, Baggio Yousseff (Josh Sabidussi 90+2), James Papadimitrov, Mile Medjedovic, James Kelly (Josh Berrrios 29’)

Unused Subs: Aleksandar Stojanovski, Dale Micoski

Yellow Card: Martin 18’